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- The Sandman Season 2 Isn't in Any Danger
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is reportedly taking aim at Netflix.
According to Deadline, Zaslav has been "railing against" the streaming giant's payment terms, potentially opening up a "new front in the streaming wars." Deadline reports that this development comes after Netflix renewed its DC series The Sandman -- a Warner Bros. Television production -- for a second season on the platform.
Evidently, Zaslav is not pleased with the way Netflix deals are structured. For the uninitiated, Netflix essentially pays producers over the course of 18 to 24 months. While this approach has been used (and known about) for years, Zaslav -- a "famously hands-on boss" -- is now the man in charge of Warner Bros. TV, one of Netflix's biggest outside suppliers of content. Zaslav reportedly "expressed his displeasure" with Netflix's terms to some of his key colleagues at Warner Bros. Discovery over the last several weeks.
Moreover, Deadline states that Zaslav has told his teams to "pause selling finished shows to Netflix" for the next few weeks. "It's an odd way of looking at it," an anonymous Warner Bros. Discovery insider familiar with the situation said. "It's obviously the way the industry works and has worked with Netflix. He's paid big numbers [by Netflix] and the company has been happy with that. It's like he suddenly discovered what the payment terms were."
Notably, Netflix's recently-launched ad-supported tier also resulted in Warner Bros. Discovery securing new payments for some of its programming currently on the platform. According to Deadline, Netflix paid the studio for the rights to "sell adverts within a number of its shows."
David Zaslav's Issues With Netflix Follow The Sandman's Renewal
As previously mentioned, Zaslav's unhappiness with Netflix has emerged after the streaming giant made the decision to renew The Sandman for Season 2. The Neil Gaiman-developed DC series' audience numbers almost certainly justified its large budget to Netflix, with The Sandman racking up approximately 200 million viewership hours during its first 10 days in release. While this would seemingly make the decision to renew quick and easy, The Sandman Season 1 had been streaming for three whole months before Season 2 was given the go-ahead.
Of course, The Sandman isn't the only Warner Bros. TV-produced Netflix original series, as the platform is also home to fellow DC adaptation Sweet Tooth and former NBC series Manifest. Furthermore, Netflix holds the streaming rights to a number of The CW's Warner Bros. TV-produced shows thanks to a previous output deal, including Supernatural, Riverdale and a number of DC's Arrowverse series.
UPDATE: 2022/12/11 20:16 EST BY NOAH DOMINGUEZ
The Sandman Season 2 Isn't in Any Danger
The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has clarified that despite Zaslav's reported spat with Netflix, the second season of the live-action comic book adaptation is still going ahead at the streamer as planned.
"Sandman Season 2 has been commissioned by a [sic] Netflix and is real," Gaiman tweeted. "Whatever behind the scenes wrangling and negotiating needed to happen to make this a reality has already occurred."
Source: Deadline